How to Unlock Acrid in Risk of Rain Returns

Unlike some other characters that are unlocked passively as you play Risk of Rain Returns, Acrid requires you to find it manually. Let’s talk about how to unlock Acrid in Risk of Rain Returns.

Acrid is an acid ability-themed melee character that can apply tons of damage-over-time effects like poisons. This creature is caged in one of the levels and has to be freed and defeated by the player. Here’s how to find him.

Risk of Rain Returns: How to Unlock Acrid

To unlock Acrid you’ll have to find it and defeat him. Acrid is the only character in the game that you have to fight to unlock. The creature is locked inside a container in the “Sunken Tombs.” What’s tricky is that this water area is one of two possible options you can get when you reach the third level. Furthermore, it has to be a specific variant of the level for Acrid’s container to spawn. If you do happen to spawn in the correct, this is how you can unlock Acrid:

• From your spawn point in “Sunken Tombs”, navigate to the top-right of the level.
• You need to reach the highest stretch of land on the right above the water and move to the end.
• If the variant is correct, you’ll find containers where one of the bigger ones contains Acrid.
• Interact with the container and defeat Acrid to unlock him.

Related: Best Acrid Build and Loadout

Fighting him is easier with ranged characters who can kite him as his abilities are all melee-based. I recommend making sure to defeat any enemies that are following you to make the fight easier. 

What are Acrid’s Abilities?

Acrid is an acquired taste since its melee playstyle without much mobility places it on the harder side in terms of gameplay. That said, once you get used to its damage-per-second abilities and realize that you don’t have to melee attack all the time, Acrid can be quite powerful. His default abilities are:

• Festering Wounds: A melee attack that applies poison damage per second.
• Neurotoxin: A short range straight line spit that damages and stuns enemies.
• Caustic Sludge: Makes it so that Acrid leaves behind a damaging trail of acid for a few seconds.
• Epidemic: A projectile that applies a powerful damage-over-time effect and spreads to nearby enemies.

Be careful in melee, especially when you’re facing hordes of enemies. Drop Epidemic and run through a group with acid trail active while stunning them with Neurotoxin with a few safe basic attacks mixed in if you can. This can often melt groups with proper movement and items.

Now you know how to unlock Acrid in Risk of Rain Returns. We hope you’ve found this guide useful. For more tips and tricks, check out our RoRR guides hub.